Red Sox Journal: A different preseason, a different perspective for owner Henry

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A lot can change in a year.When Red Sox principal owner John Henry met with the media last spring, he was buffeted with questions about whether he intended to sell the team and about...

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TIM BRITTON
Posted Feb. 19, 2014 @ 5:26 pm

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A lot can change in a year.

When Red Sox principal owner John Henry met with the media last spring, he was buffeted with questions about whether he intended to sell the team and about how Boston could possibly rebound from its worst season in half a century.

Those weren’t the primary concerns on Wednesday.

Coming off a third world championship during his 12-year tenure with the Red Sox, Henry was instead asked about small specifics — possible extensions for David Ortiz and Jon Lester — and long-range plans for the future of his ownership and of Fenway Park. It was hardly contentious at all.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of this. We’ve had 12 seasons here now that have just been incredible,” Henry said. “I’m just so thankful we were able to come here in the first place and be a part of this.”

The stark changes of the last dozen months serve as a reminder of how quickly perceptions and narratives shift. Henry was necessarily defensive last year. This year, he spoke with the assurance of a man coming off a third world championship in 12 seasons of ownership.

Whereas last year’s conversation bemoaned a shift in philosophies, Henry confidently said Boston has once again found its way. When asked about long and lucrative contracts being handed out throughout the league, Henry implicitly scoffed at the lessons unlearned by other organizations.

The Red Sox have changed things, and there’s no going back.

“We did that for a certain period of time. I think we learned from it. I think there are a few other clubs that have learned from it,” he said. “All you have to do is take a look over the last, say, 10 years of what that kind of approach has meant. It’s a very risky thing to do.

“I don’t see us necessarily changing…. I don’t see us going back to where we were.”

That said, Boston’s fiscal responsibility only extends so far. The Red Sox remain a “big-revenue” club — Henry prefers that over “big-market” — and there are only so many ways to spend that cash. Spending in the amateur draft and the international market has been capped. And so the organization continues to look for better ways to allocate the money that might be left over.

One intriguing thing Henry said on Wednesday was that the Red Sox may not be as respectful of the luxury-tax threshold as they have been in recent years. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, surpassing the threshold — $189 million for each of the next three seasons — appeared more punitive than in the past, while staying under it could reap significant rewards.

“There’s some reason to believe that [staying under the threshold] may not be as important as we thought a couple years ago,” Henry said. “There were certain incentives built into the season that at the time I doubted they would really carry the day, and that appears to be the case. They probably won’t.”

Speaking on the longer-term future, Henry said there aren’t any major plans in the works for Fenway Park, whose gradual renovation was more or less completed a few years ago. And while Henry admitted that the ballpark has a structural expiration date, he feels it has “a good 30 years” left in it.

“Someone at some point in the decades ahead will have to address the possibility of a new ballpark,” he said. “We’ll leave that for the next ownership group to worry about.”

Not so fast

While reports emerge that the Red Sox are interested in veteran free-agent left-hander Chris Capuano, manager John Farrell said he feels no urgency to add a starting pitcher.

The surprising departure of Ryan Dempster earlier in the week leaves Boston without the surplus of veteran starters it expected coming into the spring. Farrell, though, remains confident in the talented but inexperienced core of young pitchers coming up through the system.

“I like the group that’s here right now,” Farrell said. “If we don’t add anyone, I like the fact that we’ve got not only youth, but extremely talented youth.”

The idea behind adding someone like Capuano would be to store him in the bullpen in case a need for a starter arose early in the season — perhaps before a Brandon Workman or Allen Webster were ready to take on that responsibility. Farrell sure seems to think those guys might be ready right now.

“There’s no shortage of talent,” he said. “I don’t think we’re in a dire need to add a veteran presence.”

Second verse, same as first?

Thursday will mark Boston’s first full-squad workout of the season, and thus Farrell’s first chance to address the team as a whole and set the tone for 2014.

Throughout last season’s championship run, Red Sox players consistently pointed back to the first full-squad workout of that spring as the catalyst for the team’s unique chemistry and focus. So Farrell has a tough act to follow — his own.

“It is a chance to outline the expectations that we’ll set forth in this camp and it gives us a platform to work from and begin the season on,” he said. “You get one first day with them. And I think it’s important to emphasize the core value and things we brought to life last year. Bottom line is to skip no steps along the way."